2026-04-06

Missing Dose

195 drugs are in shortage right now. We track every one — who's responsible, what it means for you, and when it ends.

Consumer-facing pharmaceutical supply chain accountability — automated drug shortage scorecards, manufacturer reliability grades, therapeutic category risk dashboards, shortage duration tracking, alternative drug mapping, cost impact analysis, and weekly "Prescription Report" dispatches that translate raw FDA data into patient-readable intelligence. Not pharmacy tools. Not investor analytics. This is for the person standing at the counter being told "we don't have it."

Niche Explored

Consumer-facing US drug shortage intelligence and pharmaceutical supply chain accountability — translating FDA, ASHP, and ClinicalTrials.gov data into patient-readable, opinionated data journalism.

Existing Competition

ASHP Drug Shortages — Industry standard, but clinical/pharmacist-focused. Statistics PDFs. 216 active shortages as of Q1 2026. No consumer narrative.
CCTRx Drug Shortage Tracker — “Designed by Pharmacists, for Pharmacists.” B2B SaaS tool, paywalled. Not consumer-facing.
ShortageIQ (polsia.app) — “Every drug shortage is a deal waiting to happen.” Literally targets pharma BD teams and investors. Anti-consumer framing.
RegDataLab (regdatalab.com/stats/shortages) — Bare statistics dashboard from openFDA data. No narrative, no opinion, no patient focus. Just charts.
FDA Drug Shortages page — Raw government list. Unusable for patients. No trend analysis, no accountability, no “what does this mean for me?”
VytlOne Blog — Quarterly roundups. Manual. Not automated. Not a content channel.
Dr. Rubin’s Substack — Manual weekly FDA recall/shortage roundup. One-person newsletter, irregular.
End Drug Shortages Alliance — Advocacy org, membership-based. Not a public data journalism channel.

THE GAP: Every existing tool is either (a) for pharmacists/industry, (b) paywalled, (c) bare data without narrative, or (d) manual newsletters. NOBODY is making consumer-facing, beautifully-designed, opinionated drug shortage journalism for the millions of patients who can’t find their medications.

Data Sources Found

openFDA Drug Shortages API — https://api.fda.gov/drug/shortages.json — Free, no API key needed for basic use, JSON. 1,693 total records. Fields: generic_name, brand_name, manufacturer, status, availability, initial_posting_date, update_type, strength, package_ndc. Updated as of 2026-04-04.
openFDA Drug Enforcement (Recalls) API — https://open.fda.gov/apis/drug/enforcement/ — FDA Recall Enterprise System (RES). Cross-reference shortages with recall histories per manufacturer.
openFDA FAERS (Adverse Events) API — https://open.fda.gov/apis/drug/event/ — Track adverse events when patients are forced onto substitute medications during shortages.
ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API — Free, no key needed. Search pipeline drugs by condition/intervention. Track generic alternatives and new manufacturers entering market.
ASHP Drug Shortage Statistics — Quarterly PDF reports. Historical data since 2001. 216 active shortages in Q1 2026. Can be scraped/downloaded for trend analysis.
openFDA Drug Labeling API — NDC directory, product labels. Map shortages to therapeutic categories.
DailyMed API — NLM’s drug information database. Rich drug/indication metadata.
RxNorm API — NLM’s normalized drug naming. Map between brand/generic/ingredient.
Medicare Part D Spending Data — CMS.gov. Show cost impact of shortages on patients.
PubMed E-utilities — Free. Track published research on specific drug shortages and their health impacts.

SEO Analysis

“drug shortage” — high search volume, spikes with each crisis (Adderall 2022-present, Ozempic 2023-2025, chemo drugs ongoing)
“adderall shortage” — estimated 110K+ monthly searches (Google Trends shows persistent high interest)
“medication shortage” — growing search volume, year-over-year increase
“[specific drug] shortage” — hundreds of long-tail keywords with low competition
“can I get [drug name]” / “where to find [drug name]” — massive intent-driven queries with no good automated answers
SEO opportunity is MASSIVE: high-intent, emotional, recurring searches. Most results are news articles (decay fast) or FDA raw data (unusable). An automated, always-current site wins by default.

Communities

r/ADHD (2.2M members) — Adderall shortage is a permanent topic. Frustrated posts daily.
r/pharmacy (300K+) — Professional perspective on shortages, industry frustration
r/medicine (650K+) — Clinical impact discussions
r/cancer — Chemo drug shortages are terrifying for patients
r/Ozempic, r/Semaglutide — Supply chain anxiety
ADHD Twitter/X — Massive vocal community about medication access
Patient advocacy groups — Specific disease communities desperate for info
Facebook groups — Medication shortage support groups (large, active)

Image/Graphic Feasibility

Shortage timelines — SVG/Canvas charts showing when shortages started, resolved, re-emerged. Highly automatable.
Manufacturer report cards — Graded scorecards with color-coded ratings. Easy to auto-generate.
Drug category dashboards — Which therapeutic areas are most affected? Donut/bar charts.
Geographic heat maps — Would require additional data (DEA ARCOS or state-level) for location specificity. Nice-to-have, not essential.
“Shortage Severity Index” — Custom metric combining duration, therapeutic importance, available alternatives. Unique visual identity.
Before/after cost impact — Price comparison charts when patients switch to available alternatives.
All highly automatable with D3.js, Chart.js, or server-side SVG generation.